If you want to get access to the Internet, you're in for a rough ride. What comes to mind is more akin to driving on the Baja Toll Road than the LA freeway system. For those of you that haven't been to Baja, think of LA freeways without the elegant cloverleafs and multi-storied interchanges. This road usually has exits which are dirt tracks at right angles to the road: making you accelerate/decelerate rapidly when you enter or leave. I needed full access to the Internet after getting a small taste of its resources through using various email gateways. I decided to use my PowerBook Duo as the main desktop appliance. My first problem was to pick the right provider. There are two basic ways: Option A is terminal emulation, where your computer dials up a Unix computer that is on the Internet. But this is mickey-mouse: every time you want to transfer a file, you've got to do it twice: first from the remote machine to your own Unix host, and then from your host down to your own computer. Since I planned on doing lots of downloading (Internetters call this surfing), I wanted Option B, which is to run serial line Internet protocols (SLIP) and be directly connected to the global village. Finding a SLIP provider took the better part of several months: I had to wade through the many different rate schedules and service offerings, not to mention finding out who offered services in the New York area. The idea is to keep your Ma Bell phone charges to a minimum by calling as local a number as possible. (Actually, in some cases it is cheaper to dial a long distance number in a nearby state, since those rates are sometimes more competitive than from suburb to city. Such is the fate of deregulation. In any event, you'll have to figure all this out as well.) The best list of providers is compiled on a volunteer basis by Peter Kaminski. He last updated it in November. To receive the current edition of the PDIAL, send email containing the phrase "Send PDIAL" to "info-deli-server@netcom.com".It lists providers offering both options, although the SLIP listings are sometimes hard to fathom. From this list, I picked Global Enterprise Services, a provider in Princeton New Jersey which reportedly had a 516 area code access number according to PDIAL. When I called them, they said they had discontinued the 516 number and I would have to dial into their New York City access point. So I signed up, at an $100 entry fee and $100 per month charge for unlimited on-line time. I got my manuals and software (GES provides a copy of VersaTerm with your subscription) and set to getting it work. Here's where the dirt paths to Baja come in. It took over a week and endless tech support calls to work it all out. Some of the problems: -- my GES documentation didn't match my software. In some cases, it was close enough for me to figure it out. In others, I hadn't a clue. The documentation is essential especially where you put in the scripting commands to automate your login to their network, which is a dialog that has about a dozen different case-sensitive and arcane commands. -- the toll free number for tech support didn't work in New York. So all my calls cost me. When I asked Tech Support why their 800 number wouldn't work in New York, they were hearing this for the first time. To add insult to injury, the posted hours in my welcome letter weren't the right ones that GES operated on either. -- Their tech support people, while exceeding helpful and patient with my attempts to get things going, weren't familiar with the Express modem on my Duo 250. First they said it wouldn't work with VersaTerm and I'd have to use an external modem. After I called VersaTerm tech support, I found out all I had to do was turn off RTS handshaking -- configuring SLIP on the Mac is an exercise in learning Greek taught by an Italian. Luckily, I've been through that before, but still it takes some doing: there are numerous places in the Mac operating system that require your attention, and it is anything as intuitive as plugging in a LocalTalk cable and connecting to your local file server. -- how many people are you sharing the modem pool with? I found out the hard way that the modem pool I was dialing into is very popular place. My first attempts were met with many busy signals, including during the time the tech support folks were trying to help me get connected. So before you sign up for any service, get the actual dial-up number and try it yourself over different times during the day, just to make sure that you can get to your account. There are some Internet providers that will sell you a dedicated SLIP line, meaning that your modem is yours to use: of course, these cost more. Another thing to ask is what other numbers can you use if you travel, and how hard is it to connect to their network and your account? You may have to change one or more of those dozen commands that I mentioned if you are dialing into another computer. That's the state of the Internet these days: once you're on you can move around, but getting connected is tricky. Want some help? Get "Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh" (Hayden Books, 1993 $29.95). Adam Engst does a good job of explaining the various fits and starts, and he includes over $100 of software that will get you started, along with a way to get a low-cost SLIP account with a Seattle-based network provider.
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David Strom
Port Washington, NY 11050 USA
US TEL: 1 (516) 944-3407